Hugh Laurie's elemental about Emma Thompson

Although Emma Thompson is happily married to Greg Wise, Hugh Laurie (happily married himself to Jo Green) would appear to still hold a candle for the woman he met as a member of the Cambridge Footlights and briefly dated.

Tim Walker

9:56PM GMT 12 Jan 2009

"Those were blissful days, I must say," he recalls, misty-eyed, of his early courtship with her. "Life was all about fun back then. Watching Emma was like watching the sun or wind or some other elemental force. Her talent even then was inescapable." One trusts Mr Wise and Ms Green will take this with equanimity.

If you can't say anything nice to Mandelson…

A meagre 25 people have so far taken the trouble to comment on Lord Mandelson's deliberations about the economic "downturn" on the trumpeted Labourlist.org website.

And what they have had to comment so far has not been altogether encouraging: "You haven't got a chance, mate." "Who paid for your recent jaunt to Marrakech?" and "Peter, do you think it is morally or ethically justifiable to bring back, for a third time, somebody who has already had to resign, in disgrace, twice?" and so on.

There is an unhelpful reference, too, to the story Mandrake broke about how the Business Secretary had been hobnobbing aboard the yacht of Oleg Deripaska, the Russian oligarch, in the summer. It wasn't me, honest.